Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon
Chapter 8: Hard Reset (Brain doesn't work, please try again later)
"Who's Nora?"
Miriana took a bite of her lukewarm spaghetti as her teacher's voice had echoed in her mind. She sighed and turned to look at the strange circular roof of the luggage bay. (You know, you never properly asked what the name of this place was.) Her eyes wandered to the left, where Nora used to be. The image of Nora smiling at her when she had looked there last timeline came to mind. Also the way she had just thrown all of Nora's things on the floor like they were trash, a pang of guilt hitting her. (Where did she go, if time had reset, how could she be gone?) A circle of words suddenly encompassed Nora's locker, making her turn away from it and look aimlessly elsewhere.
(Why isn't the food hot? Or the room for that matter?)
(Miss Lina is reaching for the med-kit again, could it be my fault?)
(That yellow-haired boy is already done eating and looking around too, I could talk to him.)
Miriana eyes drifted upwards. She could tell that whatever happened to her had to have messed up her head one way or another. Whenever she tried thinking about something, writing (which she knew wasn't there thanks to a slightly embarrassing moment in the garden.) would just show up in front of her eyes. Whether it was her seeing things or something else, she didn't know, but these writings would reflect or expand on her thoughts (perhaps it came more from within?) and helped her ask some important questions (not that I know the answers to them.).
She rubbed her eyes, causing all the writing to be wiped away. "Not to mention rubbing my eyes makes the writing go away. Maybe it really is hallucinations..." She mumbled only to herself, the world oblivious to it. Right now, she was grateful for the strange text that had been popping up. Like it or not, the writing was practically the only thing keeping her sane at the moment by being a source of feedback for internal questions (perhaps it's a coping mechanism. That would explain a lot.). Which, right now, she had a lot of. (Speaking of which, don't you have a question?)
"Huh? Oh, right." Miriana finished up her lunch as fast as possible, albeit a bit messily. After a quick clean up (Thank heavens my brother chucked a bag of tissues at me before I left.), she turned to her guide, Dr. Holland, who was standing at the door. (Did she even eat lunch? Perhaps she's too stressed with the whole 'secret base' and 'robot workers' going on. Actually, I should be too.) "Hey, Dr. Holland, who runs the entire P.H.O.?" Her memory of the brochure/pamphlet she read came to mind. "I don't remember it being written anywhere."
"Oh, that would be my father, Professor Holland." The guide lifted her clip board to eye level for a moment as Miriana rubbed her eyes.
Distracted for a moment by the giant wording that had filled her vision, she quickly thought of a way to keep the conversation rolling. "o-Oh really? How old is he?" Miriana put a hand to her chin and gave a thoughtful expression, ignoring the looks her fellow students began to give her.
Dr. Holland lowered the clipboard and looked at Miriana with curiosity. However, Miriana felt the suspicion she was garnering underneath that look. "He would be about 58 years old by now, he had taken over from his father, my grandfather, and him like-wise." Miriana felt fear rising up, but she masked it with her own look of curiosity.
(Make banter, Make banter!) "So this is a family run organisation?"
Her gazed relaxed a little as she pondered the question. "I-In a way, this place has changed over the years." (Changed over the years? She must be hiding something there.)
She nodded her head and smiled. "Ok, thanks." (You should question her further.) She turned and walked back to her cubby, siting down in it, ignoring the dirt that was getting on her skirt.
She rubbed her eyes. '58 years old is rather old, and that would line up with the man downstairs.' She looked back at Dr. Holland. 'Questioning her on that would be good some interrogation, but this isn't one. Although, considering this is a family business, she may know something about those strange Pokémon in the cages.' Two different ideas popped into her head to discover her answer; one is sneaky, while the other one is more... violent. Noise filled her ears when others around her suddenly began to move.
The four other students had begun packing up their things and standing back up. (You should get up.) Without hesitation, she stood up herself and followed. "Will we ever see him?" The yellow haired boy spoke up. Miriana looked towards him with a raised eyebrow. (Is he curious himself? Anyways it's impossible thanks to the hallway that leads to him.)
"No, it's impossible." Miriana's words exited her mouth before she could speak. everyone around her turned to look at her curiously, especially Dr. Holland whose fear slipped a little through her face. (Uh oh, she's on to us. Quick, think of something!) "I-I mean, he's probably too busy watching over the place to be able to accommodate visitors. Remember, Miss Lina said that '10 minutes is similar to an hour to them' he must be too busy." Miriana's eyes wandered over to Miss Lina before going back to Dr. Holland.
"Huh, guess that makes sense." As the yellow-haired student replied, Dr. Holland's face returned to its fake smile, making Miriana internally sigh in relief (smooth.).
"Yes, it is unfortunately true, Professor Holland is far too busy at the moment, but there is still much more of this place to see, so let's get a move on." (Man, calling her father 'Professor Holland'. She's either practiced this a lot, is neglected as a child, or both.)
'I don't know that.' (Mostly considering I still call my parents 'Momma' and 'Daddy'.) "Shush you."
The yellow haired boy looked at me in confusion. "But I didn't say any-"
Miriana rubbed her eyes quickly. "Sorry, there must still be something in my eyes." She pulled out her phone. (12:35, I wonder where Riley is right now.)
"But what does-... I mean I-"
"Shush you"
"..."
"..."
"Hey, do you ever get a really strange feeling of dèga vu?"
"Like we've been in this situation before, and were continuing on a set cycle that someone has already predicted."
"Huh?"
"Like were on a set, unavoidable path that will ultimately lead us to an unknown fate that we have little to no say in."
"Riley-"
"Like anything we do will only shift our direction by a little, and I don't mean to get existential, but that also means we can so easily fall back on it."
"Riley, we've been lost for about twenty minutes ever since we took that small lunch break, which you didn't even eat I may add, and I feel like we're running in circles. Please don't start acting strange on top of it all."
"I'm just wondering if any of this is really meaningful."
"Riley... just eat your apple already."
(12:40)
'It took five minutes to get here? Really? It's like a few meters away, how even...?" (Considering how messed up time already is it's probably best not to question it.) 'Fair enough... Great, I'm talking to myself now. I'm pretty sure I've just gone insane.' (As if I wasn't already.)
The automatic doors opened revealing a familiar lobby, holding many now known secrets, and dragging Miriana out of her inner squabble. The workers who slave away at the computers or delivering food come to her view. 'To think they're all robots, I guess that explains how in sync they all are.' (Even the typing is in sync, how didn't I notice that?) She closed her eyes and rubbed them once more, her view getting clouded with words being rather inconvenient, when Dr. Holland spoke up.
"This here is the Plaza, where most of our transport or desk work is done" After a slight pause which she allowed people to look around, she continued. "It was a bit difficult to finalize the plans of this place since, as the rest of the place is filled with Pokémon, we had to find a more efficient manner for our work. Although, efficient or no, it is a bit difficult to get all the food out by lunchtime."
While students 'Oh' ed and 'Ah' ed, Miriana looked towards Miss Lina with a look of confusion. 'What she said was slightly different than last time. I wonder if it's because I asked her those questions beforehand.' (Perhaps what I say and do differently, no matter how small, can have consequences on how others act.) 'A bit troubling, but obvious now that I think about it.' Suddenly, a large siren blasted in the background with a large red light blinking above the front desk, cutting Miriana out of her thoughts.
"That would signal 12:45 PM, it's break time, which should last about an hour. This is the time which most workers go on break, and the time we will be visiting the different habitats and, unlike the garden, we will be going over them in about five minutes each." Dr. Holland began walking to the door on the left. "As you would guess, we will be seeing about ten habitats, now let us not waste any time." (That would be about 50 minutes to look at habitats.)
'Wait, when will the roar of time happen again.' Miriana searched her memories in hopes to find it before righting appeared before her. (1:10) 'Ah, that's right. Wait! that leaves less than half an hour before everything falls apart, and I've barely learned anything n-' Miriana felt a tap on her shoulders.
"Uhm... the group's moving on ahead." Miriana looked towards the yellow haired students and stared for a moment. She blinked once, and then twice, before finally registering what he said.
"Uhhhh... Right! The group. Thanks, uhh..." (Slow brain today?) 'I'll blame time travel.'
"C-Cameron." He blushes and turns away for a moment.
"Uh, yah. Thanks Cameron." None the wiser to his reaction, she turns to the door which she already knew they were going to head through.
He turned back, his eyes filled with uncertainty. "B-by, the way." Miriana heard his voice and turned to him. "A-Are you alright?"
"Hmm?" (Does he know we're having a mental crisis or that we've travelled through time... or that we may just be insane?)
"W-well... back at the entrance you-"
"N-Now, now you two. Conversations can be saved for latter, right now we must catch up with the group."
"WAHH"
"WOAH!" (When did she get there?)
Miss Lina was suddenly behind them placing a hand on each of their shoulders. "It wouldn't do us any good for us to fall too far behind after all." Her face kept a gentle smile but her voice held a forceful tone. It was something unnerving to Miriana, sending a shiver up her spine. Cameron, meanwhile, had a mix of shock and fear etched across his face.
"Oh, uhm... Sorry, Miss Lina." He then turned quickly and marched onwards. Miriana watched before looking back towards Miss Lina, her face filled with suspicion.
'Did she cut him off on purpose? To stop him from asking that question...' She rose an eyebrow to Miss Lina. "Yah, uh... Sorry." Miriana turned tail and walked to the door under Miss Lina's gaze. Once passed the doors, she stopped an leaned against the wall. An audible sigh was heard behind her, and then the footsteps, signaling that Miss Lina was coming. Pushing off the wall, she resumed her walk down the hall, trying to be as quiet as possible so that Miss Lina wouldn't notice her stop.
After a few moments of walking, Miriana, herself, gave a sigh, pressing on as both a theory and two questions circled in her mind.
"Did Miss Lina know what Cam-er... uh yellow-hair was gonna ask me?" (Forget his name already?) "And if so, what happened at the entrance, and why did Miss Lina not want me to know about it?"
Miriana rubbed her eyes to clear her vision only to see, after re-opening them, the group a few feet away from her. With all the thoughts that were going through her mind, she saunters to the group, continuing to question unknowns on her situation. However, as she re-joined the group, albeit a few steps away, she froze. (Uh oh, seems we forgot something) A whisper reached her ear, a whisper only she will ever hear as she slowly turned her head towards the Pokémon that were right besides her. (Looks like it's happening again.)
The whispers grew louder, until it was making audible noise. Her body nearly petrified, she shakily reached up and put her right hand on her left shoulder, and grabbed it hard. The words, poking at her insecurities and short-comings, slowly eat away at her confidence, until she could barely stand. However, fortune shinned upon her as the group wrapped up with the dark-types behind the glass. (Talk about good fortune, Huh) Her eyes blurry and knees shaking, she stumbles forward until she passed the room.
Suddenly, the voices vanished, leaving her to wipe her moist eyes on her sleeve, and steady her breathing. (It was worse than last time, I wonder why.)
'Why? What's going on? It seems it has a connection with the Pokémon typing.' She shook her head and steady her footing. 'Does it have to do with what's happened to me? How sometimes I can-' She felt a tap on her back.
"Are you alright?" Concerned eyes met surprised ones as she turned to see Miss Lina. "If not, I can take you home right-"
"Yah yah," (No we can't leave now.) She waved her hand in front of her face. "I'm fine, I think. More importantly, are you sure there is only suppose to be five of us, I could of sworn that we were six."
Miss Lina faced morphed from concern, to confusion, and then to realization. "Ah yes, perhaps you didn't hear."
'?' (Maybe something good?)
"Lucia had to head back home, a friend of hers wanted to dance with her, so they did, but Lucia sprained her ankle and went back to school instead of coming with the rest of us." Miss Lina nodded with finality before walking passed Miriana.
Miriana, meanwhile, rose an eyebrow in the direction of Miss Lina as she walked past. 'I don't remember that, who even is Lucia?' (Probably another student from your class you don't pay attentions to.) She sighed. 'Yah, probably. Now I wish I paid more attention to others in class.' She shook her head. "Welp, standing around won't do anything good for us, so let's go."
She marched onwards, trying to hold herself together through each strange exhibit. Whether feeling an overwhelming urge of self-confidence, to becoming so hard-headed, that she cut off a few people in front of the rock-type exhibit. (Now people will think your favorite Pokémon are Rock-type.) 'Shut it brain'
Miriana stopped walking forward. She knew what exactly was ahead of her (The electric-type exhibit). 'Can't I just wait here until the roar happens?' (We don't even know if it's going to happen) '...fine then, if I remember correctly, I felt everything concentrated to my heart, so I need to come up with a plan around it.' (Or you can just run through it.) '...Uh... Oh, flip it.' She took a deep breath and, with much less force than a battle cry should have, she muttered "Banzai." and marched forward.
She closed her eyes and prepared to get shocked... and was rather surprised when it didn't happen. Stopping her march and opening her eyes, she turned to look at the exhibit in confusion and distrust. 'What? Why? I should be getting shocked, shouldn't I?' She stared at her hands, closing and re-opening them to make sure the feeling was still in them. 'Why isn't it happening? Could everything I've seen up to this point, all of it just been-'
"Alright, your turn Miriana." Her eyes shot up towards the one who had addressed her, it was Dr. Holland. Also, all the students and teachers were now staring at her. Suddenly, something bubbled up, something she knew all too well from everything that's happened to her. Her heart rate increasing and her hands getting sweaty, she was getting panicked.
"U-u-u-u-uhm, P-par-pardon?" She stuttered out, her legs beginning to shake and her head starting to ache. Unfortunately, this wasn't something she could hide so well, leaving Dr. Holland to look at her in a confused manner.
"I asked 'how many known electric-type Pokémon are there in the world?'." Dr. Holland waited for an answer, as did everyone else.
'How am I suppose to, oh forget it.' "U-uhm, t-twenty u-uh s-s-s-seven?' Her hands went to her stomach while she looked to the side. (Your doing the same thing that yellow-haired kid did.) While most gave her odd looks before looking back to Dr. Holland. Although, one person in particular gave a questionable glance. (And he's noticing.) While Miss Lina shook her head and gave a disappointed sigh. "J-j-j-just f-forget I said anything." 'Oh, Roar of Time please come and end my misery.'
Unfortunately for her, the Roar of Time wasn't happening. In fact, upon realizing that detail, even more panic and shock spread throughout her body. Which didn't help once Dr. Holland gave her response. "Not quite, their is actually 51 total electric Pokémon." Miriana's head snapped back in shock before blushing and looking down. A few snickers from other students were heard, which didn't help at all. 'C-could we just get a move on already.'
The movement of students and teachers was a joy for her to see and, glancing at the exhibit as she passed by it, all the extra stress put upon her seemed to pass. 'Hmm, strange...' (I guess the effect was dulled to the point where it didn't give you a near heart attack.) 'It's gotten weaker, but why?' Although, as she looked forwards and followed the group, one question stuck out in her mind: 'Why hasn't the Roar of Time happened yet?'
She glanced at her phone.
'1:14 PM'
"RILEY! HOW ON EARTH DID WE GET SO LOST!"
"I-I'm sorry. I had the whole map memorized, but now I can't even remember how many floors the building has."
"RILEY, THEY MIGHT BE WAITING FOR US TO CHARGE IN RIGHT NOW! WE'RE THE STRONGEST TEAM IN OUR GROUP, IF WE'RE NOT THERE THEY HAVE NO CHANCE AT WINNING!"
"I j-just can't-'
*CRRRrreeaaaacckkkk*
'U-uhm, what was that?'
'S-sounds like-'
*Clanck* *Thud* "Gack!"
A Riolu landed hard on to the floor of the Cafeteria. Slowly, he shifted his body and sat up.
"R-Riley! Are you okay?"
"Y-yah, keep your voice down, you don't want-"
"Unauthorized Pokémon Detected, please return to your habitat during viewing hours. Only during after hours may you wander around."
The Riolu froze before slowly turning behind him. A person stood behind him... Well, one would mistake it for a human if it wasn't for the eyes glowing a bright red and the net shooting out of it's stomach and falling on top of the Riolu.
"R-Riley!"
"No! Leave me, you know what'll happen if you attack it. I'll be fine, go find the others!"
"But I can't-"
"Go Lunar, they're waiting for you."
"R-Riley."
Thankful for the lack of comprehension from the robot and how quiet his partner in speaking and running through the vents, the Riolu was dragged away to the unknown.
'I'll be alright, just wait for me Lunar.'
Hero Bios (What they know of themselves):
1. Name: Miriana Nyxim (Will post after first chapter)
Species: Human (part-Eevee...?)
Occupation: Student (part-time day-dreamer)
Personality: Hard-worker and surprisingly efficient. Despite having a bad habit of getting lost in her head, her sheer abilities saves her. Gets lost in thought often, but one of the smartest around when it comes to figuring things out. Feels like school doesn't teach enough of the right things, not like she knows what the right things are.
Ability: Adaptability (Same type attacks are amplified)
Move set: Territorial Claim (a mix of protect and endure, the user can't move, but will severely weaken most attacks), High-jump tackle (a leaping version of tackle, higher attack but lower accuracy), ?, ?
Note: She prefers a state of organized chaos, which means a mess that you get the general idea of where things are, over, you know, actually organizing things. Also, she loves letting her mind wander.
Note: She has a coping mechanism where she begins hallucinating commentary on her own thoughts, literal words appearing in her eyes. It only happens under a lot of stress though and is used to organize her thoughts, and keeping her mind from falling apart.
Friends: Nora (possibly)
2. Name: Riley (No last name)
Species: Riolu
Occupation: Free-lance helper (part-time scavenger)
Personality: Straight to a fault with a strong sense of justice. After an incident he keeps close to his chest about his childhood, he was separated from his family and grew in the woods running from all the Pokémon that attacked him. Likes to train.
Ability: Inner Focus/Powerful Resolve (can't be made to flinch/when receiving more and more damage, they become stronger)
Move set: Force palm, counter, ?, ?
Note: Has a habit of turning his head to the left and right as he thinks, whether when it's talking to someone or if it's in his head. It would make him look suspicious if his expression didn't show no fear.
Note: Has a partner named Lunar the Shinx, they usually get along well, but when Riley messes up bad in something, he usually gets wrung out by Lunar.
Friends: Lunar (Partner)
Preview: The other girl who's missing (Lucia)
Outside the building unbeknownst to all, a single camera laid on the grass, smashed and beyond repair-able. Besides it, a girl laid down, a tired expression on her face. She sat up and looked at the building, before raising a fist in defiance. After a few seconds, she let her fist fall and laid back down. With a sigh, she looked up to the sky and muttered to herself in resignation.
"So much for my scoop."
